Not Friends
by Wyndes
Summary: A tag for Lost that is super spoilerific - DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE! Seriously, you don't want that episode spoiled, I promise.
1. Chapter 1

"Zane. Zane. Come on, Zane. Wake up."

Jo knew she ought to let the medical personnel wake him – they had no idea what Beverly's drugs might have done – but her impatience had the better of her.

It had been a grueling three weeks since the Astraeus disappeared. She and Carter and Henry had been working around the clock to find the lost ship and bring it home. Fortunately, Carter's insight, Henry's knowledge, and her own impressive military skills had eventually led them straight to Beverly. Jo had planned and led the raid on the secret installation and seeing the furious Beverly being taken away in handcuffs had been pure satisfaction. But it would all be meaningless if their loved ones weren't okay.

She knew Carter and Henry felt the same way: Carter was next to her, smoothing Allison's hair as he desperately waited for her to stir, and Henry was across the room, talking to Grace in a low voice, while the medical team they'd brought with them worked on Fargo.

Zane's eyelids flickered. And then opened, a glimmer of recognition in the gray as he squinted up at her before he closed his eyes again.

"Zane, damn it, wake up," Jo ordered him.

He sighed without opening his eyes. "What are you doing here, Jo?" His voice was low and tired. "I told you, I can't be friends with you."

What? Jo flinched away from him. When had he said that? That wasn't how they'd ended things. Okay, sure, she'd told him she wouldn't wait, but not that they wouldn't be friends. She'd been wrong, anyway – she'd known it as soon as she got the call from Carter telling her that the Astraeus had disappeared. She'd raced back to Eureka as if demons were on her trail and hadn't left since.

"Wake the hell up, Zane." Jo slid her arm under his neck and down around his shoulders and started tugging. She'd force him to sit up. That would wake him.

He didn't resist, opening his eyes and letting her pull him to a sitting position. He rubbed his hand across his face.

Next to them, Alison was awakening, too. She was sitting up on her own, looking confused and a little lost, but Carter didn't pause. Before she could ask questions, he was kissing her, his hands buried in her hair, his mouth taking hers with a glad ferocity. Jo felt a pang of envy for their relationship – everything was so simple between Carter and Allison. They loved each other and they knew it. Beyond them, she could see Henry and Grace wrapped in one another's arms, Henry laughing and tearful at the same moment.

"I mean it, Jo," Zane said, interrupting her thoughts. "I don't want to see you."

"You – what?" Jo dropped her arm, leaving him sitting on his own, and took a step back. She looked at him – at his familiar beloved face, the stubble on his cheeks, his eyes steady on hers. What was he saying? And why?

"But Carter…" Alison broke away from his kiss.

"I love you, I love you, I love you." Carter was repeating the words like a mantra, pulling Allison close, touching her hair, closing his eyes and stroking her as if he'd never let her go.

"But Carter," she repeated, pulling back. "What about Jo?"

Jo was numb. This was not how she'd expected this meeting to be. She'd imagined it dozens of times over the last weeks. It wasn't that she'd expected them to jump straight to happy-ever-after like Carter and Allison or Henry and Grace, but she'd been going to tell Zane that she'd been wrong, that she wanted to make things work between them. She'd planned to let him know how important he was to her, how much she cared. Hell, in at least half of the scenarios she'd pictured, she'd started with "I love you."

This – this just wasn't right.

"Jo?" Carter asked, surprise in his voice, not letting Allison go.

"Please go away, Jo," Zane said, looking tired and grim. "I don't know what you're doing here, but I told you before, I don't want to be around you."

Jo drew in a deep breath, feeling a pain that rocked her to the core. She'd lost him. Really lost him.

"Your girlfriend?" Allison said. "The one you're in love with?"

"What?" Carter and Jo said the word simultaneously. Jo suspected the expression on her own face matched the shock on Carter's.

She stared at Zane. He glanced from her to Carter to Allison and began to look puzzled.

"You think – you think – you think . . ." Jo stuttered, unable to get the words out.

"Ally, you've been locked in some kind of virtual reality device created by Beverly Barlow," Carter began to explain patiently.

"You think Carter and I?" Jo finally managed to form sentences. "You think I'd sleep with Carter? That's disgusting!"

"Hey," Carter broke off his story to protest. "That's a little strong. Although…" he paused, looking at her, and winced.

"It'd be like having sex with my brother," Jo snapped at him.

"Or molesting my daughter," Carter agreed. "Yeah, you're right. Disgusting fits. Ally . . ." But Allison didn't need any more explanations. Like Henry, she was now laughing through tears, as she wrapped her arms around Carter and pulled him close.

Jo turned back to Zane. He was shaking his head, still looking confused.

"Not friends? Not friends?" She glared at him and then . . .

SMACK.

He recoiled, the imprint of her hand already leaving a red mark on his face. "Ow!" he protested. "Jo, I –"

But she didn't wait to hear what he had to say. Turning, she stormed away, hand stinging from the strength of her slap.

Not friends?

That bastard!


	2. Chapter 2

"Do not talk to me." She ground the words out through gritted teeth as Zane sat down next to her at the counter of Café Diem.

"JoJo, you need to listen." He ignored her order, his voice serious.

"No," she said, turning to scowl at him. "No, I don't. You thought I was sleeping with Carter!" Her voice rose as she spoke until she was practically yelling the name. Heads turned in their direction and she could almost hear the murmurs of people asking each other if she'd really just said what it sounded like she'd said. The urge to hit him again was almost overwhelming and she clenched her hands into fists.

"You don't understand."

"Of course I don't understand! What's to understand? You believed I would – I would –" she paused, trying to find the words to express her rage at his lack of faith in her. Sure, she'd told him she wouldn't wait, but that didn't mean she was going to start sleeping with someone else two weeks later. And that the someone else would be Carter – that he could believe she would sleep with Carter – how could he know her so little?

And then that he'd throw their friendship away, as if it meant nothing, as if it was casual instead of being the most important relationship in her life.

She turned away from him and stared straight in front of her, not seeing anything but not able to look at him, either. She didn't have the words to tell him how betrayed she felt. She wanted to scream and cry and hit things. And she needed Vincent to hurry up so she could get her dinner and get out of here, because screaming and hitting might be okay, but she really, truly wasn't going to cry in front of Zane.

_Not friends. _

She blinked hard, feeling the burn of the tears behind her eyelids.

"You should listen to him, Jo. You don't know the whole story." Carter's tone was gentle. He and Allison had been sitting side-by-side at a table when Jo arrived at the restaurant, Allison cuddling up against him as if touching him were a miracle that she'd never let end. And she still hadn't let go, Jo realized, glancing at them where they stood next to Zane. She was standing with Carter, fingers entwined in his.

"Jo, it was very realistic," Allison said. "I believed it, too."

Jo looked at Allison's earnest expression and said, as evenly as she could, trying hard not to let her voice break, "And did you tell Carter that you weren't friends anymore? Did you tell him you didn't want to see him again?"

"I – well – no, of course not." Allison glanced up at Carter's face and sighed.

"Of course not," Jo repeated, glaring at Zane. "Of course not."

"It was different," Allison protested. "I had Jenna to think about. You'd raised her – I couldn't ignore that."

"I – what?" Jo's glare faded as she looked back at Allison. "Raised Jenna?"

"Years had passed. We thought we'd traveled forward in time. For us, it was no time at all, but when we got back to Eureka, it was years later." Zane was explaining and Jo tried to understand what he was saying but his expression had captured her attention. She'd never seen him look so serious, so sad. The mischief that was always there in the curl of his lip, the quirk of his eyebrow, was gone as if he hadn't smiled in days.

"Years?" Jo tried to imagine it.

"Years," Allison confirmed, leaning a little closer to Carter.

Jo shook her head slightly, still confused. "It felt like years to you?" she asked Zane. If he'd had years to get over their relationship – years when he believed she wasn't waiting for him – well, it still hurt, but maybe it was her own damn fault for being such a wishy-washy indecisive idiot before he left.*

"No," he clarified. "For us, it felt like days. Weeks, I guess. But in the alternate reality, it was 2016 and you'd," he glanced at Carter and Jo thought she could see him swallow, "moved on."

Jo felt a twinge of returning anger. "Moved on? To Carter? I can't believe you believed that."

"It seemed very plausible," Alison spoke quickly. "The virtual you . . ."

". . . was very convincing," Zane finished her sentence for her, sounding grim.

Jo looked away from them, trying to think through her misery. She didn't want to be unfair. But damn it, he'd hurt her. "You said we weren't friends." The words sounded petulant, even to her ears, and she closed her eyes in frustration. Damn it, she hated what he could do to her.

"Jo." Zane reached and took her hand, tugging it towards him. She swiveled on the stool automatically, turning her whole body in his direction for the first time. "We're not friends. We're lovers. And no, I can't be less than that. Not anymore. Not with you."

"You hurt me," Jo blurted out, feeling stupid as soon as the words left her lips.

"Yeah, imagine how I felt." He was trying to make the words light, she saw, but his eyes were intent on hers.

"I think our work here is done," Carter murmured to Allison, taking a step back. Jo glanced at them. Allison's smile was warm and sympathetic, but she was hanging on to Carter as if he were a lifeline. Carter nodded at Jo, his arm tight around Allison.

She looked back at Zane as Carter and Allison moved away from them. Was it time for a rewind? Could she do this? Could she take the chances she'd been imagining for weeks?

"Zane . . ." She started and paused, trying to find the courage to say what she wanted to say. He was still holding one hand, his fingers warm and strong on hers. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt this scared, but this was too important. She didn't want to screw it up.

"Jo," Zane interrupted her, squeezing her hand slightly. "Give us a chance."

She blinked at him. Ah, he'd thought she was about to tell him no. She let the corners of her lips curve up as she placed her other hand on his cheek, loving the scratchy feel of the stubble under her fingers. "I want to."

"But?" His tone was wary, his expression still too serious.

"But nothing." She slid her hand around the back of his neck and leaned toward him. Softly, the words just loud enough that only he would hear them, she added. "I love you. The old you, the new you, all of you, always you."

She barely had a chance to see the relief on his face before his lips were taking hers, his hands pulling her up, off the stool, and drawing her against his body, his arms locking around her as he kissed her breathless.

And when he finally pulled back for air, the cocky grin was back as he said, teasing, "All of me?"

"Okay, maybe not the part that's incapable of putting your dirty clothes in a hamper that's two feet away," Jo said dryly, as she slid her hands down from around his neck and across his chest.

But she knew her smile was telling him the truth and his smile only grew a little wider as he leaned down to her and whispered in her ear, "I love you, too, Jojo."

* * *

_*Ahem. Perhaps just a little authorial judgment there? But I do hope she realizes someday that she was an idiot. _


End file.
